Phonograph



Patented July 3, 1928.

UNITED STATES CECIL K. LYANS, OF BALDWIN, YORK, AND ALBERT DUNN, OF DUBOIS,

PATENT OFFICE.

rnNNSYLvANIA.

PHONOGRAPH.

Application filed October 29, 1926.

rlhis invention relates to phonographs, the primary object of the invention being to provide a record and means for controlling the playing thereof which will enable the playing ot much longer records than Iis possible with devices heretoi'ore'used.

lnl carrying `out my invention it is, of course, necessary to malte a record in a manner very similar to that in which the record is played but we shall hereinafter set fort-h our invention in connection with means for playing a record.

Undoubtedly the most serious detect of the disk type ot talking machine record is the fact that nothing requiring more than about tour minutes to play can be recorded entire on the ordinary diskl record. It would be possible to increase the time capacity by using records ot larger diameter, but the increase in time capacity would be so small compared to the increase in bulli' of the record that it loses any practical advantage.

lf instead oi' operating the turntable at a constant speed (78 PWP. M. in current practice), the turntable were operated at an accelerated speed, so that the travel ofthe groove under the needle would be at a constant speed measured in inches per minute, much more time value could be gotten out of the present diameter of record, and increases in diameter, it' adopted,^would justity themselves by affording much greater increases in time value.

For examplethe playing part oi a twelveinch record will extend from an outside diameter .ot about eleven and a halt inches to an inside diameter of about four and a half inches. The spaces outside and inside those points are margin and center, respectively. With a constant speed under the needle, the circumference at the outside limit, thirty six and a tenth inches, would khave more than two and one halt times as much time value Seral No. 145,021.

ity of about 14 minutes, which would permit the recording without mutilation of even most symphony movements.

An added advantage would be in the uniform conditions ot recording and reproduction that a constant speed ot travelL would give. lVith the constant R. P. M. as now used, a speed exactly right at the periphery would be so slow at the center that the tone when playing near the center would be deadened. A speed just right at the centei would be so fast at the periphery as to cause excessive scratchiness. It is necessary to compromise, arranging conditions so that the oprimum speed is about midway between these two extremes. No compromise need be adopted with the constant speed ot travel. All the record would be played at the optimum speed. lVhen thus freed from the necessity of producing records to play successfully at a wide range of speed, it might be found possible, by reducing the speed and getting more grooves to the inch oi' diameter, to produce a twelve-inch record that would play fifteen or twenty minutes.

Two serious practical difficulties stand in the way ot a change from the constant R. P. M. to a constantrate ot travel:

1..Any variation between the rate of acceleration of the turntable used in recording and the rate of acceleration in the reproduc ing instrument causes the record to play out of tune. No device which is appreciably affected by the weather, temperature. strength of springs, etc., will be satisfactory. No device merely approximating to a constant speed of travel through acceleration of the turntable will be satisfactory, because all the individual machines ot that malte offered on the market would have to be synchronized with each other to a degree of accuracy not mechanically possible, in order that all of them could play equally true to pitch any records made to be used on them. An acceleration giving exactly constant rate of travel permits more vtreedom. Just as a record is equally well in tune under the present method whether played at or 78 R. P. M., so a record would Vbe equally well in tune whether played at 1100 or 1200 inches per minute. All that is necessary is that the rate be constant throughout the playing ot the record.

2. Any device of this sort should permit Aen 1 rangements of parts, to be more fully de-v ycould be made to rotate at constant R. P. M.

when desired. This is a commercial necessity, becauseboth manufacturers and corinsumers would hesitate long to adopt a' machine that made all the present records unavailable. If the accelerating device can be disconnected at will, it preserves the availability of all present resources while adding a new one.

The device to be described meets both of these requirements by a simple mechanism, which can be constructed to apply to the machines vnow in the homes, without any alteration of the motor mechanism.

.In the standard type of machine, the speed of the turntable is controlled by a lgovernor, and can be varied by turning the knurled knob of a speed regulator. Experiment shows that, within the effective limits of the governors functioning, the increase or decrease in RP. M. for each degree of turning of the speed regulator is at a constantrate. Experiment alsoindicates that the governor lresponds to the action of the regulator with a high degree. of accuracy. Therefore, by simply linkingthe speed regulator to the tone arm, so that the travel ofthe tone arm in playing will turn the regulator, we have a simple and accurate method of varying theRgP. M. of the turntable to correspond tothe position of the needle on the record. This is the essential principle of the device to be described.

lith these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations and arscribed hereinafter and pointed out in the claims. l l.

In the accompanying drawings is illustrated one embodiment of our invention- Figure 1 is a view, partly in elevation and partly in section, illustrating my improved attachment in connection with a standard type of phonograph;

Figure 2 is anenlarged view in section on the line 2-2 of Figure 1; i

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view in vertical section through the mounting ofthe upper portion of the controller shaft;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary view, partly in elevation and partly in section, showing the mounting of thearm on the controller shaft;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary plan view of the record and t-he tone arm and sound box.

1, represents a box or cabinet in which a frame 2 is secured and supports a spring motor 3 which through the mediumof a pinion 4t and a ,gear wheel 5 transmits motion to a shaft 6 on which a turntable 7 is mounted. record disk 8, the groove of which is engaged by a needle 9on the sound box 10 carried by tone arm 11. The parts above described This .turntable 7 supports thel are standard equipment and need not be described in detail.

On the shaft 6 a large gear wheel 12 is ixed which engages a' pinion 13 on a governor shaft 1st, the latter carrying outwardly movable arms constituting a governor 15 and a disk 16 to which the arms 15 are connected. 17 represents a controller shaft which projects through an opening 18 in cabinet 1 and at its lower end is mounted in a bracket 19. This shaft 17 adjacent its upper endcarries a pinion 20, and an adjusting button 21 is mounted on the upper end of the shaft and has an opening 22 therein receiving a grooved portion 23 of shaft 17, so that the button and shaft are coupled to move vertically together but permit free turning movement of the shaft.

This button 21 has an enlarged externally screw-tln'eaded lower end 24;' which meshes with an internally screw-threaded opening 25 in an angle bracket 2G. Thisl angle bracket 2G is secured to the box or cabinet 1, and an arcuateangle plate 27 is also secured to the cabinet 1' and is offset upwardly at its center edge to accommodate thereunder the toothed end of a segment 28. The segment 28 is secured to the tone arm 11 and meshes with pinion 20. l i

On the controller shaft 17 l locate sleeve 29 which covers a screw threaded porton 30 of shaft 17 and has one or more pins 31 projecting into'the threaded portion of the shaft so that when the shaft turni: the sleeve is moved longitudinally on the shaft, as will be readily understood. i

The sleeve 29 carries a tubular extension 32, projecting at right angles thereto and supporting. an arm 33 Vwhich telescopes in the extension 32 and is adjustably secured therein by means of a set screw 34. The

arm 33 projects through a slot 35 in frame 2 to prevent lateral movement of the arm, and at the free end of said arm a shoe 36 is provided to engageA the underface of disk 1 6. This attachment above described may be readily secured to any ordinary type of phonograph in general use with but slight expense.

In operation the speed of the disk 8 is varied during the playing of the record and this variation inv speed is entirely automatic. By reason of the mechanism above described the turningof the record is slowest while the needle is in the outer groove, and the speed of movement of the record increases in relative proportion as the needle moves radially and inwardly of the disk, so that` the highest speed of the record is when the needle is in the innermost groove.

In referring to the speed as highest and lowest we would have it understood'that the high speed ofour record is substantially the same as the normal speed of the record now in use, so that the speed of the record when the needle is in the outer groove is very appreciably less than the speed of the records in common use.

While We have illustrated a particular apparatus for carrying out this idea We would have it understood that We do not Wish to be limited to particular details of construction but desire to cover broadly the idea of means Which vary the speed of the record as the needle moves radially of the record so that, for example, a bar of music requires only the same length of groove at the outer portion of the record as it does at the inner portion of the record.

This invention, as above stated, includes the idea broadly of the provision of a record adapted for playing in connection with apparatus. as above delined.

Various slight changes and alterations might be made in the general form of the parts described Without departing from the invention and hence We do not limit ourselves to the precise details set forth but consider ourselves at liberty to make such changes and alterations as fairly fall Within the spirit and scope of t-he appended claims.

vWe claim:

l. The combination with a phonograph having a turntable and a movable tone arm, of a governor operatively connected to the driving mechanism of the turntable, a controller shaft caused t0 turn by the movement of the tone arm, and means operated by the turning movement of the controller shaft to control the operation of the governor, said last-mentioned means including an arm having screw-threaded engagement with the shaft, and a disk on the governor engaged by the arm.

2. The combination with a phonograph having a turntablev and a tone arm, of a governor operatively connected to the driving mechanism of the turntable, a controller shaft, a pinion on the controller shaft, a segment on the tone arm meshing with the pinion, a sleeve having screw-threaded engagement with the controller shaft, an arm adjust-ably connected to the sleeve, a shoe on the arm, and a disk on the governor engaged by the shoe.

3. rIhe combination with a phonograph having a. turntable and a tone arm, of a governor operatively connected to the driving mechanism of the turntable, a cont-roller shaft, a pinion on the controller shaft, a segment on the tone arm meshing with the pinion, a sleeve having screw-threaded engagement With the controller shaft, an arm adjustably connected to the sleeve, a shoe on the arm, a disk on the governor engaged by the shoe, and means for adjusting the controller shaft longitudinally.

4. The combination with a phonograph having a turntable and a tone arm, of a governor operatively connected to the driving mechanism of the turntable, a controller shaft, a` pinion on the controller shaft, a segment on the tone arm meshing with the pinion, a sleeve having screw-threaded engagement with the controller shaft, an arm adjustably connect-ed to the sleeve, a shoe on the arm, a disk on the governor engaged by the shoe, a bracket, and a button having screw threaded engagement with the bracket and operatively connected to the shaft whereby the manual turning of the button adjusts the cont-roller shaft longitudinally.

CECIL K. LYANS. ALBERT HATHORNE DUNN. 

